Dad ‘wets himself’ to save his daughter from embarrassment after she has an accident at school

A father has been praised after wetting his own trousers to go and collect his six-year-old daughter, who has an accident at kindergarten.

Pictures of Ben Sowards performing the kind act were shared to Twitter by his elder daughter Lucinda, 17, who wrote: ‘My little sis had an accident today at kindergarten & this is how my dad left to pick her up so she wouldn’t feel so sad/embarrassed 😂😂❤️’

My little sis had an accident today at kindergarten & this is how my dad left to pick her up so she wouldn't feel so sad/embarrassed 😂😂❤️ pic.twitter.com/veHMFO4QHr

The images of Ben with little Valerie soon went viral, with over 64,000 retweets and 258,000 likes to date.

There were a couple of commenters who wondered if the incident might have been made more embarrassing for the child, with one saying: ‘I would feel more embarrassed if my dad showed up like that to pick me up from school’, and another agreeing: ‘I would’ve been EXTRA embarrassed 😭😭😭’

However, the majority of the responses were overwhelmingly positive, with many referring to Ben as ‘dad of the year’.

‘That’s called being a great father. I did the same thing, before,’ one Twitter user said, whilst a second added: ‘That makes me tear up, what a thoughtful and kind way to help her’.

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‘Your dad is a superhero 😇😇,’ a third tweeted to Lucinda.

‘With parenting, a lot of what you do is based on instinct,’ Ben later explained during an interview with PEOPLE magazine. ‘It was a gut reaction. I wanted to demonstrate in a clear way that I love my child and it didn’t matter to me that she’d peed her pants. I knew that “wetting” my own pants would cheer her up and help her to handle the embarrassment.’

The Sowards’ adorable story has also helped to shed light on a wider cause, as Ben is actually father to 11 children, four of whom have come from foster care, and were adopted by the family in the same week.

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Speaking to KUTV, Lucinda said that foster care was ‘not a fairy tale’, but added that it was ‘extremely gratifying’ to see her family grow in this way.

‘These kids were finally going to have a safe and happy place to go home to,’ she concluded. ‘I automatically fell in love with them. It was almost like a little switch. I was overjoyed to make them a part of my permanent family.’